Defense:
9

Utility:
0

Why hello thar.

Why hello thar, Nejiji on the interwebz. I'd like to share my knowledge with you about one hell of a champion, namely speaking of Vladimir. Read up the list down below to see what you can learn from this guide.

Da FAQ. Lemme answer.

16 ranked win streak, nuff said. No, in all honestly, as Dyrus once said:- Vladimir top is so broken.
I would not dare to disagree, Vladimir finally found his serious place, his harass, escape and farm abilities are on the highest levels. All that a fine Top needs. You will have HP, yet your Armor/Resists won't be as good. Still, your Sanguine Pool should completely compensate.

It is oddish a bit, but forget how to play him like an aggressive Mid. On that Top Lane you want to be 80 CS by 10, 190 CS by 20 and a good over 300 once the game is done. Vladimir is ALL about farming. If you suck at this, don't even touch my Vlad.
What you want to do with Vladimir is to farm your thing with Auto attacks, while punishing (most of the times) those Melee Solo Tops for getting close to your minions.
Since we want to start with Boots of Speed you will have tons of damage in farm, that if you are at least decent in this game and you use your brain!

3. How to Win your lane?

Outfarm it. Ashame them with your Creep Score. Keep in mind you have the Troll Pool, the ability to escape death, something that some of Tops do not have. I used it countless times to dive, went closer, pretend you attack the tower, then BAM, Ignite, Transfusion and Tides of Blood followed by instant Sanguine Pool.
This combination is so strong Top it's just funny to watch it. They can't nuke you like Mid champions and you can pool most of their efforts. Broken yet?

4. Beware those guys!

Gangplank, Shen and Wukong are the people you seriously do not want to lane against.
GP is overally known for his ability to Parrrley your face.
Shen is able to keep up with your harass and healing.
Wukong will just burst you out, since you aren't a guy with full Armor rune page, looking at you Garen-haters.

Pros and Cons

Your Skill Set

Crimson Pact:Converts HP to AP and vice versa.
This is what makes you a Vladimir. Most of the AP Carries will have to buy 2 HP items, you need only 1, all thanks to AP to HP converting. This passive makes you really tanky, letting you be in the middle of fights and being a real off-tank.

Transfusion:Free Nuke and Health Drain.
Your main damaging skill throughout the game. First of all, it's free. Only thing that limits this wonderful spell are cooldowns. Use it to Last-hit if needed, but mainly for harassment. You harass and heal at the same time, that's the key to Solo Top.

Sanguine Pool:Makes you invulnerable for 2 seconds.
Your only escape mechanism besides Flash... at times, even better than Flash! It makes you invulernable to all Auto Attacks and about 95% of spells. If timed correctly, you will avoid that main stun of the teamfight or simply escape a gank almost ontouched.

Tides of Blood:AoE Nuke, boosts Regens and Heals.
Probably your main Farming and Teamfight skill. It costs less than it used to be, thanks to this it can be maxed second if you need more offense. It hits EVERYONE in it's range, if you can land a stacked ToB in the teamfight, it will help greatly.

Hemoplague:AoE Nuke, increases damage dealt to enemies.
Probably best AoE spell that doesn't have any CC. This spell is nothing else but a great countdown nuke. But, once cast it will leave a 7 second debuff making your enemies take 14% more damage from ALL ENEMEY sources, this skill is teamfight changing, if cast on more than 3 people.

Thanks to LameoGamer for the template!

Runes and Masteries

Masteries

Masteries

2/1

2/1

4/5

1/1

3/5

4/1

4/

1/

1/5

3/1

4/1

1/1

Alright, some must be surprised, what the hell is wrong with such master setup? Let me begin with Butcher , I prefer this over those pesky 2 AP, since it lets me last hit way easier, it always saves you that 10-20 last-hits. After this I take all standard Mage masteries up to Executioner , which is vital as it has a lot of synergy with Vlad's Transfusion and Hemoplague. Defense Tree is complicated, depending on what enemy you have you will rather take 6 Armor/2 MR or vice versa. Then you aim for more HP per level, makes you over 3,4 HP late game along the runes and Rylai, talk about Tankiness. One free FLAT HP rune Veteran's Scars and you are ready to go.

Viable Summoner Spells/Combos.

Flash or Ghost + Ignite:
Basic and safe, those who like Flash more would pick it and the same goes for Ghost likers. Good for every occasion, Yet I recommend Flash more, flashing over walls is just way too helpful to keep you alive.

Heal + Ignite:
Hardcore, 100% ofennsive combination. I rarely use it, seriously. This is more of a wild card. You will rely on Sanguine Pool only to escape, meaning you have to play EXTREMELY CAREFULLY, but if you suceed, you will give your team healing equal to Wish. Just how well Tides of Blood works with Heal.

Flash + Heal:
If you feel that you will not need Ignite that much and rather than that you would have to survive some insta-burst, then run this option. It's completely amazing, I tried it for a lot of games, both Normals and Rankeds, it did not fail me once, Heal is so much better on Vladimir thanks to his Tides of Blood it's sometimes a shame not to use it.

Skill Sequence

Offensive Vladimir

Ability Sequence

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

Great setup when you know you can easily fight your Top enemy. Tides of Blood dash out tons of damage (Phreak Approved!) in early teamfights and thanks to them you farm like a God. Thou be careful, longer CD on Sanguine Pool means you have to play with head, fight but keep in mind:"There is always a Lee Sin in the bush".

Defensive Vladimir

Ability Sequence

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

In case of "There is always a REAL Lee Sin in the bush". Max out Sanguine Pool when the enemy has a jungler that can seriously threat your life e.g Lee Sin, Skarner, Amumu or Nocturne. Also it's good if the enemy has some sort of great counter CC or damage like Olaf or Irelia, you can avoid them if needed and it will be back in time.

Rabadon's Deathcap: If you farm like 95% of minions and you do this for first 15 minutes, you should skip WOTA and Spell Vamp for now and take Rabadon. Seriously, if you know your farm is going to be godlike around 15-16 minutes, screw everything, take Rabadon. This is how I makes myself a GOD VLADIMIR once I kick in Mid Game's teamfights.

Rylai's Crystal Scepter: This is Vlad's item - 500 HP, 80 AP are your passive's wet dreams - but whet counts the most is the extra slow effect. Thanks to this you fix your greatest weakness a.k.a having no CC at all. With this, your Transfusion is going to work like a Parrrley, just on a lower Cooldown.

Guardian Angel: I saw comments like "WTF are you building Vlad?", "What is this ****ty build?!". Oh well, I got over it, Guardian Angel is what makes Vladimir perfect. It gives you that permission to actually burst into the teamfight without the fear of mashing your Sanguine Pool. Gives MR, Armor and that broken Passive. You will have 3 Troll faces up your sleeve: 1st Sanguine Pool > Guardian Angel > 2nd Sanguine Pool. This one gives you way more freedom and it's quite cheap seeing how well you can farm and kill.

Zhonya's Hourglass: If the enemy is more focused on AD, take this before GA, it gives you great stats and a bit over 120 HP from the Passive. What I love the most is the active. You just active in the middle of them all, waiting 3-4 seconds for your time to arrive in, since you took some of their CCs. Then you pool out and troll them - win teamfights. Works even better with Guardian Angel. LOOK DOWN

Abyssal Mask: Swap this item for Hourglass if the enemy has majority of magic damage (quite rare now). Most of the time damage will be even'd out so Guardian Angel would be your best choice. But this one is again great, if you are teamed with Kennen, less with Cassio.

Spirit Visage <3

Item Sequence

Spirit Visage: If you found yourself against that Akali or Malzahar and you want to disturb their combos, buy this item along WOTA. SV is actually awesome if you do the Heal Vladimir, amazingly strong healing with stacked Tides of Blood and the Summoner's Resolve . I have counter the healing, late game it will give you over 1100 healing and half of that to your allies, heals delivered by Vlad.

Lane Game, Mid Game, Late Game.

LEARN THESE RULES BY HEART!

1. I will not overextend.
2. I'm going to last hit all creeps I can.
3. I will buy wards.
4. I will use my Auto-attacks to last hit as much as possible.
5. I'll punish my enemy for each creep he last-hits a.k.a Transfusion them.
6. I will not use Tides of Blood on all minions at once.
7. I will not get cocky, Sanguine Pool won't save me forever.
8. 70 creeps by 10 is vital, without it I fail.
9. I will post "uvladbro" everytime I escape death.
10. Farm over Kills. Farm over Kills. Farm over Kills.

Minutes (1:30 - 15:00)
Start Boots of Speed and 3x Health Potion, simply because you are ranged, you will have to run from Melees. At this time your main target will be creeps, you should not be fighting all out, trade blows if needed, then go back and heal it out. You aim for at least WOTA and CDR boots by 15 minions, buying a ward or two by time being so you won't have to go back too much. Play carefully, don't do stupid ****, just stay back and last hit the creeps with auto-attacks (requires some practice). Once you got 2 Core Items or Rabadon (by 15-16 minutes, otherwise it's not worth it).

Minutes (15:00 - 30:00)
Farm when you can, clear out waves, get the jungle, do everything to keep your farm up, if the game is still Lane Phase, even better for you. At this time, you are probably the strongest person out of all 10 people. Your damage, health and utility is stupidly stronk, abuse it. If you run into a teamfight, you should target the highest damage target ASAP, usually the AD Carry. If you get them, noone will be able to stand your damage. If you got Rabadon by 16 minutes, this game is 90% won. Do not get caught and sit on AD's Carry back all the time. You are the off-tank anyway.

Minutes (30:00+)
You should be seriously tanky by this time. Use it, if you got Guardian Angel, do not hestitate, wreak havoc as long as you can. If you have your Zhonya too, it's splendid, you have so many troll ways to escape death and ace them with your team it's just stupid. Use your talents right, since you are ought to be the last man standing out of each teamfight.

Conclusion

Vladimir has been my main for the past 16 months. A lot of people there saw what I'm capable of doing with him. 8/10 of my Vladimir games I end up carrying my team to the win having something close to 9-1-7 KDA ratio per game. My avereage creep score by 20 minutes is 180-195, that's how you perform a God Vladimir.

Too bad, I can't tell you how to play him exactly, this comes with practice, and surprisingly, Vladimir is harder to master than one would think. To sum up - you should know your limits and your own place, what counts for you is farm, if that makes you leave some action-packed fights, be it, you can carry by farming.

I wish you the best of luck, I plan on adding some Counter section and overall improves on that guide, since this for sure is not a masterpiece.

Thanks to jhoijhoi for his guide on making a guide, it helped me by a lot and I learned a lot of new things.